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VIDEO — 19 Jul 2024

The global IT outage, the faulty CrowdStrike update and two recommendations for companies

A live interview on N1 on the day of the global IT outage about its causes, the risk of cyberattacks and recommendations for companies.

TV N1
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On the day of the global IT outage I joined the N1 programme Dan uživo as a cybersecurity expert at BrightMarbles Group. We talked about the causes of the outage, the risk of cyberattacks that moments like this bring, and how companies can keep something similar from stopping them in future.

An Azure failure and a faulty CrowdStrike update

This crash of IT systems on a global scale was caused by two problems that hit Microsoft’s systems within a short time. The first came the day before, when Azure, Microsoft’s cloud service, failed in the central United States. That hit a large number of airlines, banks, airports and financial institutions, even government institutions and many large companies. According to the information available at the time, the suspected cause was a misconfiguration in part of the services, which then compromised other Microsoft services in a chain.

The second came that day, when many Windows devices ran into problems such as the well-known blue screen of death, which brings down the whole operating system. It was caused by a faulty security update to Falcon Sensor, the antivirus software of the cybersecurity company CrowdStrike.

A golden moment for cybercriminals

A situation like this can absolutely open the door to cyberattacks. When a cybersecurity service goes down or struggles to function, protection systems are compromised, and those are golden moments for cybercriminals. They will step up their activity and try to reach their goals, whether that means stealing data and money or disabling particular systems. I honestly expect reports of increased cyberattack activity worldwide in the next few days.

Two recommendations for companies

There are two recommendations that can be applied today, and both are very common in cybersecurity.

  • —Proactive management of software updates. Testing new software versions proactively is mandatory before they are rolled out across the company. That means setting up a test environment to assess potential problems before an update goes onto production systems and all the computers employees use.
  • —Crisis management plans. Companies should develop and regularly update business continuity and crisis management plans. These plans should include clear steps for responding quickly and restoring systems after serious failures, as well as alternative ways of providing services, all the way back to paper and pencil.
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